pebs

@Almaqah Thwn For one of my apps, I didn't realize I was eligible for a waiver until a notice was included right before the payment section. Unfortunately, procrastination cost me $75 because I slid that application in right under the wire, and getting the fee waiver meant emailing a form to the office before submitting the app online. I'm glad yours worked out better than mine!

How far into the paper is the selected text? I wouldn't make them dig too far for it. If it's near the beginning, I think I'd sooner gray out the remainder text (either the font or via gray highlight) and include an indication in bold of the start and end of the selection. Highlighting or bolding the selected text might make it difficult to read. Try a couple approaches and show others; get some opinions on what looks most obvious while still being readable.

For most of them, it was an automated system. For the couple that were live humans, I gave them an earful about calling a number on the do not call registry. I was already heavily considering switching to Google Fi; I think this might have cinched it. Do you have any issues with customer service? The only reason I think I'm still hanging on is that I've been with T-Mobile forever and their customer service beats the pants off the others. Congrats on your interview invite!

Hah, same. I've found invaluable information here, but at what cost to my peace of mind? I just try to imagine that I'd be as anxious not knowing what I didn't know, and try to relax.

Vertical by Stephen Graham. Which, while fascinating, is a somewhat academic geography book. Which...isn't helping me chill. I should probably read something else.

I have been answering so many stupid spam phone calls the past two weeks; my god. Thank you, graduate admissions process, for helping me confirm my number in at least 12 telemarketer/scammer databases so far.

I have let impostor syndrome take so many chances away from me. I wish I could say something nervy and awesome like "not anymore", but even applying to grad schools was a huge step for me, and I'm proud. (Now please, oh please, don't roundly reject me and confirm my crazy fears, thx!)

@GeorgeC07 Well, I'm glad to hear I misunderstood you. The first line distorted my reading of the rest. I'm lucky that my parents never nagged me about singledom. How long have you been at your current school? It took me a couple semesters to make friends at my final undergrad institution, but I was also an old bag.

Three schools, GRE plus GRE prep, app fees, actual freaking *fax* costs to order transcripts since some schools insist that faxing a signed form is the only electronic option that satisfies FERPA (it isn't), and access to a couple of essential POI pubs that I couldn't get through school...about $700 altogether.

@GeorgeC07, I'm not sure I understand. Are you intimating that people with partners don't experience persistent harrowing thoughts? I certainly apologize if I've misread your post, but if not, that's concerning for at least two reasons. One, it seems you're implying that we don't deserve understanding and care. Two, finding a partner does not cute depression, anxiety, or any other problem, and it sounds like you might be expecting it to do so. I was single through big chunks of the loneliest and most isolated years of my life. I suffered chronic depression and anxiety since childhood. I experienced suicidal ideations and intent from the age of 10. Now I'm happily married to my partner of four years. And I still go through all of the above. It's hard work dealing with them, but if I hadn't started learning how, with professional help, several years before this relationship, getting here and realizing I still felt all these awful things might have killed me. Your destructive thoughts are not about being single, and they will not go away when you find someone. You're worth the investment in self-care, single or otherwise. Regardless, I wish you the best.

I'm still proud that I had my SOP done two full days before the deadline. That's two days' more breathing room than I normally give myself on assignments.

Hey! I'm another geography hopeful. I'm constrained to the Northeast because of my husband's job, so I've applied to Clark (PhD), UConn (PhD), and Hunter College (MA). My GPA at the school I completed undergrad (last four semesters) is 4.0, but I visited a few other schools along the way (I'm...not young) and have some bumps in my academic history, and no idea how to divine an overall GPA out of all that. My GRE scores are 170V/158Q/4AWA (the last one is BS; writing is my strength). I have strong LORs and an SOP that is supposedly also quite good. I'm so nervous about my past grades. There are a few ugly marks in there and even though in my SOP I explained moving constantly (big moves, too) during that time, I can see someone getting hung up on them. I also didn't contact any POIs prior to applying; I received conflicting advice on that topic and my social anxiety eventually won out. I'm not sure if I should try to do it now - again, conflicting advice. If it doesn't work out this year, I'm going to take more classes, get more research experience, and try again. This is the first time in my life I've ever been sure of what I wanted to do.

Hm. In that case, I'd worry that they'd notice my reported scores were different than the ones I'd filled in, and think I was trying to hide something. Unless the director told you to fill in the scores you wanted considered?

I have seen conflicting advice on this question all over the place, so I will be following this thread with great interest.

I'd be inclined to go with the middle scores, but do you have anyone you can reach out to at the program?

I had the same problem with running out of time on the quant sections on the actual exam vs the practice exams taken under real test conditions. All in all, I feel like the Magoosh prep I did hurt me on the quant portion. It really got me inside my head in a bad way.

Keep it if you're used to it and it makes you feel like yourself. If it's well-kept, you'll be fine. As a woman, I wouldn't get an unfamiliar haircut before something so big, because I'd be too mentally thrown. If your interviewers are that incredibly thrown by a good beard, is that really a great fit for you, anyway? Best of luck with your interviews, whatever you decide!

Do you have a strong SOP and writing sample? The AWA is kinda garbage and doesn't seem to be too highly regarded. I don't think I'd send those third scores, but do you have an advisor or really trusted POI you could ask?

The computer-based test allows you to search by location/name. They wouldn't let you bring anything written down into the test anyway.

Fellow vocabulary lover, and I have the same irritation at that word. No matter how many times I remind myself what it means, my brain always skids off towards associations with "garrison" and the like, which get me nowhere near "trivial conversation". Like @dagnabbit above, I also found "chary" particularly useless.

Not the OP, but wow - their Staad attache is exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you!

Thanks for this. My hair is on fire with apps right now, and I don't have a lot of perspective. This helps.

Reading this forum makes me feel hopelessly naive on this front (and many others), but I've only applied to 2 PhD programs and 1 MA. My husband can't relocate, and that's that. I don't mind that we'll be living apart while I pursue an MA, but we couldn't manage through a PhD as well, so I only chose places that are theoretically within (an ugly) commuting distance. If I don't get accepted into any of them, at least I have a job. I don't enjoy it much, but we'll survive to the next choice.

I'm applying to a Ph.D. program directly out of undergrad, and I have strongly-written paper for an undergrad research project that is a shining example of my interests. It would be a no-brainer to use as my writing sample, if I hadn't had to truncate the project due to problems with the data that only made themselves known late in the game when running the numbers produced no valid results. My research supervisor still had me complete a paper for course credit; this paper has many elements of a typical research paper (presentation of hypothesis, background, lit review, suggestions for further study, etc), but the bulk of it is an examination of the data, the methods, and why the project went wrong. (To this end, it is more conversational in tone than it would otherwise be.) I've had one professor say he doesn't think the project's outcome would reflect poorly in the context of a writing sample, and another tell me the opposite. I trust them both, and would err on the side of not submitting it, but my other writing samples are just not anywhere near as good an example of my ability to do research. One is a seven-page paper on a topic well within the scope of my degree field, but nowhere near my research interests, and the other is a 12-page co-authored lit review for which I did the bulk of the work. Each is well-written. Barring using the failed project paper, I would submit them both (with explanations for the co-authored paper), but I feel like I'm hurting myself by not showing my work in my area of interest. Any suggestions? Should I stick with the other two, and maybe excerpt the troublesome paper?

This is what gives you the right. Perseverance will get you much further in life than intellectual gifts.